'\" et
.TH ASA "1P" 2017 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
.\"
.SH PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
.\"
.SH NAME
asa
\(em interpret carriage-control characters
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
asa \fB[\fIfile\fR...\fB]\fR
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.IR asa
utility shall write its input files to standard output, mapping
carriage-control characters from the text files to line-printer control
sequences in an implementation-defined manner.
.P
The first character of every line shall be removed from the input, and
the following actions are performed.
.P
If the character removed is:
.IP <space> 10
The rest of the line is output without change.
.IP 0 10
A
<newline>
is output, then the rest of the input line.
.IP 1 10
One or more implementation-defined characters that causes an advance
to the next page shall be output, followed by the rest of the input
line.
.IP "\fR+\fP" 10
The
<newline>
of the previous line shall be replaced with one or more
implementation-defined characters that causes printing to return to
column position 1, followed by the rest of the input line. If the
.BR '\(pl' 
is the first character in the input, it shall be equivalent to
<space>.
.P
The action of the
.IR asa
utility is unspecified upon encountering any character other than those
listed above as the first character in a line.
.SH OPTIONS
None.
.SH OPERANDS
.IP "\fIfile\fR" 10
A pathname of a text file used for input. If no
.IR file
operands are specified, the standard input shall be used.
.SH STDIN
The standard input shall be used if no
.IR file
operands are specified, and shall be used if a
.IR file
operand is
.BR '\-' 
and the implementation treats the
.BR '\-' 
as meaning standard input.
Otherwise, the standard input shall not be used.
See the INPUT FILES section.
.SH "INPUT FILES"
The input files shall be text files.
.SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
.IR asa :
.IP "\fILANG\fP" 10
Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are
unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
.IR "Section 8.2" ", " "Internationalization Variables"
for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine
the values of locale categories.)
.IP "\fILC_ALL\fP" 10
If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the
other internationalization variables.
.IP "\fILC_CTYPE\fP" 10
Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of
text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to
multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).
.IP "\fILC_MESSAGES\fP" 10
.br
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and
contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
.IP "\fINLSPATH\fP" 10
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
.IR LC_MESSAGES .
.SH "ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS"
Default.
.SH STDOUT
The standard output shall be the text from the input file modified as
described in the DESCRIPTION section.
.SH STDERR
None.
.SH "OUTPUT FILES"
None.
.SH "EXTENDED DESCRIPTION"
None.
.SH "EXIT STATUS"
The following exit values shall be returned:
.IP "\00" 6
All input files were output successfully.
.IP >0 6
An error occurred.
.SH "CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS"
Default.
.LP
.IR "The following sections are informative."
.SH "APPLICATION USAGE"
None.
.SH EXAMPLES
.IP " 1." 4
The following command:
.RS 4 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

asa \fIfile\fR
.fi
.P
.RE
.P
permits the viewing of
.IR file
(created by a program using FORTRAN-style carriage-control characters)
on a terminal.
.RE
.IP " 2." 4
The following command:
.RS 4 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

a.out | asa | lp
.fi
.P
.RE
.P
formats the FORTRAN output of
.BR a.out
and directs it to the printer.
.RE
.SH RATIONALE
The
.IR asa
utility is needed to map ``standard'' FORTRAN 77 output into a form
acceptable to contemporary printers. Usually,
.IR asa
is used to pipe data to the
.IR lp
utility; see
.IR lp .
.P
This utility is generally used only by FORTRAN programs. The
standard developers decided to retain
.IR asa
to avoid breaking the historical large base of FORTRAN applications
that put carriage-control characters in their output files. There is no
requirement that a system have a FORTRAN compiler in order to run
applications that need
.IR asa .
.P
Historical implementations have used an ASCII
<form-feed>
in response to a 1 and an ASCII
<carriage-return>
in response to a
.BR '\(pl' .
It is suggested that implementations treat characters other than 0, 1,
and
.BR '\(pl' 
as
<space>
in the absence of any compelling reason to do otherwise. However, the
action is listed here as ``unspecified'', permitting an implementation
to provide extensions to access fast multiple-line slewing and channel
seeking in a non-portable manner.
.SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"
None.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IR "\fIfort77\fR\^",
.IR "\fIlp\fR\^"
.P
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
.IR "Chapter 8" ", " "Environment Variables"
.\"
.SH COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition,
Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
.PP
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
in this page are most likely
to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
